Development and Validation of Attitudes and Concerns toward COVID-19 Vaccination Scale

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 vaccines are one of the fastest developed vaccines to date. People have different views and opinions about it. A positive attitude can strengthen the vaccination program, whereas a negative attitude will be an obstacle for a healthy and safe nation. This study aimed at developing and validating the Attitudes and Concerns toward the COVID-19 vaccination. Methods: Initial draft of 48 items was developed based on literature review and interview of experts. After content validation with four experts and semantic validation with 20 respondents, 32 items were retained and administered to 607 Indian adults aged 18–60 years. Results: Data were analyzed by IBM-SPSS Version-23 with AMOS. Exploratory factor analysis supported the two-factor structure for the attitude toward COVID-19 vaccination and three factors structure for the concern domain. Cronbach alpha for “Vaccine Acceptance” and “Vaccine Hesitance” was.825 and.721. The reliability of religious concerns (α = 0.785), social concerns (α = 0.714), and health concern (α = 0.699) subscales was acceptable. The confirmatory factor analysis results verified two-factor model of attitude and three-factor model of concerns as the model indices were close to 1; RMSEA was 0.000 and PCLOSE values were 0.861 and 0.927, respectively, for Parts I and II. Conclusion: This is 12-item scale that measures vaccine acceptance, vaccine hesitance, religious concerns, social concerns, and health concerns related to COVID-19 vaccination.